Strange economics

I was listening to an old Roger Whittaker song the other day – one called “From the people to the people”, and the ideas and emotions engendered by the lyrics struck home:

“You take it from the people, you give it to the people.

Its people who reap and people who sow.

You work with the people or you gotta go.”

These words express very well my philosophy and what I have been trying to say in these posts, for many years. It is PEOPLE who are of paramount importance. Not MONEY. Not the ECONOMY. It is people – without people there is no money and therefor no economy.

The IMF seem to have come to their senses and have realised that what they promoted after the 2008 financial crisis – domestic financial austerity and repaying the loans provided  from internal resources and so “balancing the budget” – doesn’t work and leads, inevitably, to economic and social crisis. 

Just look at Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Cut wages and increase taxes and what do you end up with? People with less income and without the ability to purchase anything other than essentials - this is no way to “stimulate the economy” and promote the growth that is so necessary. And certainly no way to balance anything!

Superficially, and very simplistically, a country’s budget and economy may seem the same as an individual’s budget, potential income and wellbeing (their “economy”). But it is not. An individual can do nothing to stimulate his wellbeing if his wage is reduced – it is illegal for an individual to print money. All any individual can do is to try and get another job – very difficult if the general economy is depressed – look at Greece, and not good for their wellbeing.

All that cutting wages does is to, temporarily, boost profits and thus benefit shareholders. But there is an old saying, “you can’t get blood from a stone”. Now I understand this to mean that when something is “dry” no matter how hard you squeeze nothing will come out of it.  Sooner, rather than later “squeezed” individuals “dry up” and the governing authorities (and shareholders) are left with nothing except a society that is poor, desperate, frustrated and angry.

This is not good for anybody’s wellbeing!

The words of the song that opened this post are very appropriate – 7Eleven, McDonalds, Walmart and any other organization (market gardeners?) or government, anywhere, that promotes low wages take careful note!!

It’s not the Economy, stupid – it’s people!

Homelessness in any society is a measure of its Moral Compass and Social Conscience. In Australia, where I live, the latest figures provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in 2011, record that there were 105 237 homeless people (49 out of every 10 000 people in the country). In the Northern Territory this reaches the staggering figure of 700 in every 10 000! This astonishing number reflects the very poor status of the Original People of Australia - the Aboriginal. We should hang our heads in shame.

In the USA – the wealthiest country in the world – on any night in January 2013 the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported there were 610 042 homeless people (19 out of every 10 000 people in the country). According to the Walking Shield website that caters for Native Americans there were 90 000 Native American families that were homeless - using the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 2003 figures. This is now 2014 and, with respect, I suggest that there will not have been much improvement since 2003.

These figures – statistics – are an appalling indictment of the way current economic theory and capitalism are disconnected from “real” life.

Everyone is worried about the “economy” but they forget or ignore the fact that the “economy” would not exist without people. People ARE the economy. Look after people – pay them a liveable wage – and the economy will prosper. The low paid will have more money to spend after the essentials have been catered for. This is both the ethical and the morally correct thing to do.

The “multiplier effect” is, I understand, something like 1.5 – for every $1 in increased basic wage (for the low paid) there is a $1.50 benefit for the “economy”; increased spending power, increased taxes for governments, reduced requirement for social security benefits and generally better health and well-being for the recipients. This is the “churn” effect that money has - what goes around comes around and then some!

I remind my one loyal reader that over one hundred years ago Henry Ford said that every worker should be paid enough to buy what he makes!

It is not the “economy”, stupid – it is people!!

Modern Democracies – WHY VOTE?

It is good to have my feelings about politicians supported by an august journal such as the New York Times - I thought my one loyal reader might be interested in the following quote from the NYT:- 
 
"The Worst Voter Turnout in 72 Years

 Turnout this month was the lowest in any federal election since 1942.

Showing up at the polls is the best way to counter the oversized influence of wealthy special interests, who dominate politics as never before. But to encourage participation, politicians need to stop suppressing the vote, make the process of voting as easy as possible, and run campaigns that stand for something.

Over all, the national turnout was 36.3 percent; only the 1942 federal election had a lower participation rate at 33.9 percent. The reasons are apathy, anger and frustration at the relentlessly negative tone of the campaigns.

During the same period, negative campaigning has become ubiquitous in the United States and elsewhere and has been shown to impact voter turnout. Attack ads and smear campaigns give voters a negative impression of the entire political process.”

The sentiments expressed above fit very well with my thoughts and feelings regarding the 2013 Australian General Election. The only difference is that in Australia there is that odd “democratic” law that voting is compulsory (and people are fined for NOT voting). But informal votes – “invalid” votes - have increased from 2.1% in 1983 to 5.9% in 2013 (approx. 940 000 voters out of a total of approx. 15.9 million on the electoral roll).

The NYT editorial’s comments about running campaigns that mean something and voters “apathy, anger and frustration at the relentlessly negative campaigns” certainly resonates with me. Even with Australia’s “compulsory democracy” the actual voter turnout for the 2013 election was only about 81% and even lower if the 1 million odd Australians living overseas who did not bother to vote (or were not even on the electoral roll) are taken into account.

As in the USA there has to be a reason for this low turnout and I suggest that “disenchantment” with politicians is the prime cause – lack of trust and because politicians lie. They say one thing (“read my lips”) before an election but then promptly ignore this and do something which was not voted for.

Politicians need to treat voters as human beings with hopes and aspirations and not merely as an inconvenient, if necessary, means to get elected and politicians need to give voters something relevant to actually vote for - then see the voter engagement improve!!

Troubles: Ebola and the Islamic State.

My one loyal reader – Archie – asked me the other day why I had not written anything since July. This is not easy to answer as there is always SOMETHING to write about but, no excuse, I just felt like a break. Not that I have been entirely inactive. I also write letters, principally to our Australian politicians - some of whom seem in need of guidance in ethical conduct!!

My Blog is about “Ethics and Life”, which covers just about everything – this is why I chose the name. Now, today, there are two major issues (events) that need addressing – Ebola and Terrorism. 

Neither is easy to explain or to cure – if that is the correct word to use for terrorism. But both have a similar root. In the case of Ebola – poverty, lack of basic facilities and poor education, in other words, injustice. In the case terrorism, in this instance the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) – injustice, both perceived and actual, and historical precedent.

Firstly Ebola. Fear, leading to inaction and helplessness is/are the main concerns with this truly awful disease. Fear – knowing that there is no cure; helplessness and inaction – knowing that there is nothing that can be done except wait. The speed with which the virus attacks its victims is astonishing – the incubation period is between two and twenty-one days. Once it strikes the victim is dead within about ten days. The only glimmer of  “light” is that not everyone who contracts the disease actually dies – victims have about a 1:4 chance of surviving, even without treatment.

But the reason for the rapid spread of this frightening virus is the common factor of poverty – poor standards of education and a lack of basic hygienic facilities (appropriate housing, clean water, piped sewage) – all of which relate back to poverty.

Why this poverty prevails is complex but ultimately stems from a reluctance by the “developed” world to provide the means to help the local population root out corrupt and inept governments and to improve their living standards.

This is why there are so many people trying to gain entry into Europe, the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia by "illegal" means – to escape the impoverished conditions in their own countries. And we (the developed countries) blindly turn them back – a VERY short-sighted approach. 

My imagination fails me when I try and envisage what it would be like to know that I have a 75% chance of dying because I came in contact with the “bodily fluids” of someone who had Ebola – my wife, child or other family member, or a friend, or someone I was trying to help. Then what about the emotional and psychological effect of watching someone you love die, because nothing can be done except comfort them as best as possible.

Truly shocking. But we, in developed countries are part of the problem – and the solution.

Secondly - the BIG ONE – terrorism. Let me state at the outset that what the believers in, and the followers of, the Islamic State (IS) are doing is absolutely appalling and casts them into the outer fringe of what is generally considered as humanity.

My understanding is that the IS – and their various off-shoots - has an agenda that is driven by an idealism that is not, and cannot, be matched by those who oppose them. For instance I do not believe that even the professionalism of the men and women in the Royal Australian Air Force (or any of the coalition forces cobbled together by the USA) is a match for the idealistic (and ostensibly religious) fervour that drives these extremists.  

These people – the IS – are driven by a combination of deep resentment at their treatment by the Christians over the thousand years since the first Crusades; by what they (the Muslims) see as “Western customs” which they consider as profane and which violate their understanding of what it means to live a life according to the Law as divulged by God/Allah to the Prophet Mohammed and by what Muslims experience as marginalisation and diminished “status”. This is evident in the manner by which the rest of the world treats them, hence their avowed intention to re-create a Caliphate which, they firmly believe, will give them cause for pride and status in the world.

So, we in the developed nations, are part of both  the problem and the solution.

The IS see themselves as re-creating something “good”, by whatever means, however obscene and barbaric these may be to others. But they are also trying to make a point for disaffected Muslim youth – “See, we are strong and people fear us. Come and join us and you too will be seen as strong.” This is attractive to disaffected and marginalised youth.

This is what may be considered as a Crusade – in reverse. These “new” Crusaders (for Islam) want to reclaim what they believe is rightfully theirs – what they had in the first Caliphate. This reversion to the “old” Caliphate which would comprise all of North Africa, Portugal and Spain in the West, Jerusalem and the entire Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East and as far as the China border in the East, plus Indonesia and (possibly) the Philippines, which are more recent additions to the Muslim World.

This, for the IS, would be a start.

Whatever means the USA and their allies use to combat the IS it will take a very long time to achieve “victory”. Remember that the Crusades of the Middle Ages extended over a period of nearly two hundred years – from the First Crusade in 1096AD to the Ninth and last Crusade which ended in 1272AD.

It took this long for Christian Crusaders to reclaim most of the lands overrun by the Saracens or “Moors” in their initial expansion – but, note carefully, they never defeated Islam; they never killed the ideal. An ideal, a goal, a promise or religious fervour can NEVER be defeated. It lives on in the hearts and minds of the believers no matter what. Look at what the might of ancient Rome did to the original Christians – yet they survived.

The USA and their “coalition”, unfortunately, will never defeat the ideals and the fervour of the IS. The only way is through negotiation, however unthinkable this may seem. Unless there is negotiation the IS may be driven underground where it will fester for generations, before resurfacing somewhere, unexpectedly and with unforseen results.

This is a "new" world scene that we are entering.

Warsaw Ghetto 1940 – Gaza Ghetto 2018.

Amended May 15, 2018
I wonder if anyone ponders  the irony of the current situation between Israel and the Palestinians (in Gaza) and compares it with the terrible events in Warsaw in the early years of the Second World War?

In 1940 the Germans (Nazis) walled off a small area of the city of Warsaw and instructed all Polish Jews to either move there or be forcibly transported there. From this Ghetto many Jews were transported to the infamous “Extermination Camps” that the Nazis had set up, under the ruse that they were to be “resettled”.

Once those in the Ghetto realized what was happening they set up a resistance movement to fight for their survival – after all they had nothing to lose. The final battle started on the eve of Passover on April 19, 1943, when a Nazi force consisting of several thousand troops entered the ghetto. After initial setbacks, the Germans under the field command of Jurgen Stroop systematically burned and blew up the ghetto buildings, block by block, rounding up or murdering anybody they could capture. Significant resistance ended on April 28, and the Nazi operation officially ended in mid-May, symbolically culminating with the demolition of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw on May 16. According to the official report, at least 56,065 people were killed on the spot or deported to German Nazi concentration and death camps - (I acknowledge  reference to Wikipedia for some of this information).

Now, today, in the Gaza Ghetto with the Palestinians who were either moved there or were forcibly resettled because the Israelis took control of Palestine, we are seeing an eyrie replay of those appalling events of 1943 under different circumstances, certainly, but with the same intent:-

To DESTROY THE RESISTANCE AT ALL COSTS!

There is a blockade in place – imposed by Israel under the guise of stopping the rocket attacks on Israel. OK – this, just possibly, I can understand. But what I can’t understand is the Israeli refusal to recognize the Palestinians justification for their use of these weapons.  Remember there are 1.8 million Palestinians packed into a small enclave. Gaza is the most densely populated area on earth – they have nowhere else to go. The Palestinians are frustrated, demeaned as a people, treated as second class citizens, racially vilified, starved of opportunity and quite frankly treated in a manner that those Jews who survived the Holocaust would recognize as similar to what they were subjected to.

So now, the Palestinians are fighting just as the Jews did many years before.

To so twist words as to accuse the Palestinians (Hamas) of “causing the problems and the deaths of  Palestinian’s” is an obscene abuse of language. Hamas (read Palestinians) are fighting for their survival as a people; fighting for their community, their religion and their way of life. Isn’t this what the Israelis have always done in the past? Isn’t this what the Jews trapped in the Warsaw Ghetto did? Would anyone in their right mind claim that the Jews who died in the Warsaw Ghetto caused their own deaths?

I am sure the United Nations would, today, classify the Zionist militia group, Irgun (1931-1948) – under the leadership of Menachem Begin ( later, in 1977, Prime Minister of Israel), as a terrorist organisation. In fact Begin himself was, at the time, in the 1940s, declared a terrorist by the British who had a “mandate” over Palestine. Various Zionist leaders held different ideas about how to achieve their goal of an Israeli nation but revisionist Zionists, like Begin, were extremist nationalists who believed violence was justified to create a state and considered guerrilla and terrorist tactics a legitimate route toward this end.

Sound familiar?

The injustice of the carve up of Palestine after the Second World War when Israel was established (in 1948) without any Palestinian consultation or the payment of any reparation for the Palestinian properties taken over when the new State of Israel was formed, is the root cause of the present problem.

That injustice, seventy years old now, still burns in the Palestinian psyche. What are the Palestinians supposed to do? They formed Hamas to fight for their rights just as the Zionists formed Irgun to fight for theirs.

The Israelis have now systematically destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza – hospitals, water plants, electricity generators, sewage systems, schools, roads, in fact anything of value to the inhabitants – with  the intention, I am sure, of forcing the Palestinians to leave, thus solving Israel’s “problem” (which the Israelis themselves created).

This is exactly what the Nazis did in Warsaw.

Violence begets more violence and creates a vortex, which, like a black hole, sucks in everyone and everything - there is no way out. Killing people never solved a problem – the Israelis know this; the Americans know this; the world knows this. Violence, as I have proclaimed in these posts many times before, is the last resort or the morally bankrupt.

Remember, what goes around comes around.

Read what you will into these words.